It's no big secret that newspapers, given today's widespread preference for rapid delivery of information, has struggled to affirm its foothold in terms of user base. It certainly doesn't help too that the rapidly growing technological climate is threatening to usurp conventional press on a daily basis.
This is why the New York Times and other reputable newspapers have increasingly brought up their digital game of late, often offering customers a seamless and streamlined digital iteration of their newspapers. The New York Times is part of this list, and it has now introduced a new paid tier that'll make subscribing to its service more convincing.
Your New York Times Subscription Will Come With Spotify Premium
Looking to persuade more readers to leap into its shore, the New York Times is working with Spotify to give new digital subscribers premium access to the music streaming service.
That means every New York Times digital subscription, which sets you back $5 a week, will now come with Spotify Premium, But there's a catch: you'll have to commit to a yearlong subscription, and it will only be available for a limited time for U.S. residents. The yearlong subscription, however, opens the full span of New York Times's content, be it on the site or on the paper's mobile app, and well, unencumbered Spotify freedom, PCMag reports.
An Odd Coupling
This makes for a bizarre collaboration — a publisher that's almost two centuries old conspiring with a relatively new internet company — but Meredith Kopit Levien, the paper's chief revenue officer, says it's a natural fit.
"If you think about the places where people spend their time in media, they spend a lot on music and a lot on news," she said. "So it made for a very positive association."
"News and music have gone hand-in-hand since the early days of radio," noting that both Spotify and the paper are keen on personalization and curation.
"[W]e created an experience for Times readers that gives them access to all the news and all the music that they want in one premier subscription," she said.
The bundle highlights the paper's intent to trawl the younger generation into reading more profound journalism, reaching them by partnering up with online services such as Spotify and by joining Snapchat's Discover platform. This past November, more millennial readers read the New York Times than BuzzFeed or Vice, scoring 48 million unique visitors as per ComScore, Bloomberg reports.
Levin said that the paper is beginning to turn its focus to engaging younger people on the site and how it'll make that relationship more significant.
The collaboration is aimed at aiding both companies reach broader audiences. As of last year, Spotify has recorded over 40 million paying subscribers globally, while the paper just surpassed 3 million subscribers, in both print and digital.
The paper's unlimited pricing usually costs $6.25 a week, meaning the new $5-a-week Spotify bundle costs 20 percent less. Sure, it might seem a strange pairing at first, but with the promise of unlimited Spotify access to lure new users in, that wretched paywall may now finally be discarded.
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